Assessing of Heroes Frox Our Ows Conursronvent, London, Jun. 14, Once a year there is a meeting of "experts in heroism," to decide who is the most fit and proper candidate for the Stanhope Gold Medal of the Royal Humane Society—at least the most fit and proper for recommendation to the Court of that body for approval The meeting was held this week. There gathered" together for the Durpose at the ofoes of the society Trafalgar Square w rumper of men who had lived 1 them "to assess hi min the Nowy, in the Army and in business, Before them were laid a. number of signal instance courage. which had been chronicled' in the past during' that pesic.
A Signal Distinction No one could feel his claims to this signal di motion had been over looked, No one could suggest indifference.
No one could feel that the men in whose hands lay. thi award were anything but experts, They had spent years in rewarding eases of courage and heroism. they knew delicate ton meaty all the gradations which go. to make up the most striking episode in the self-sacrifice of man oF woman—yes, woman, for the deeds of women often deserve as high a tribute as do thexe of mi The selected eases ware produced, carefully read by the secretary and then separated 10 throes and each such sub-division ther ensued discussion. Tt wax then the onlooker noticed the wide experience of the assessors. They had before them deeds recorded from all party the "furcilung" British "Empire Some humble individual thousands of miles away had had act of heroism recorded by either onlooker or officials, It was discussed—as were all the attendant stances, The sea was raging, the night wax dark, the chance of rescue hopeless, sharks abounded, no one would come forward till the
the man rushed to the rosen Then scene turned—the dive fully-dressed off the incoming tramp at dead of night asthe small. boat crossing the vessel's bows was run down.
And then the trawler off the Bunks—swept by the storm and the deck hand carried overboard and the shipmate's plunge to save him, Forms of Rescue Then the scene again changod—we were in the midst of industrial heroism—the descent into the well full of poisonous sas—not once but twice and thrice to save a comrade, the dash into a welter of molten metal to drag out the prostrate form of a fellow-worker, the saving drama in the canal tum Again there came a new type—the bather swept out to sea in a xemitidal wave, the episode of the little children crossing the swollen river und the night-ery of "Man overboard" which reached a vessel moored in the swift-racing stream of a river were and mo Even the assessors felt thei times rightly to essexs courage where there was so) much of this glorious characteristic. They sought for every little detail which might enhance either the one deed or another. Many of them knew the places whence the stories had come., They "xeconstituted" the scene for the benefit of their colleagues. The voting was all by secret ballot and no award made either a sub-division or in the final selection unless it were first by a majority and then unanimously. Perhaps where it wa: to ascertain who was pri paves a knowledge of human nature turned the scale. But those who see in cold print the matter of fact announcement. that the, "Stanhope Gold Medal has been awarded to So ax So" will never and can never know the heart searching examin tion which preceded the selection.
For Experts Only 7 Anyone can say whether such and. such an act is: heroic. But bring together all the annual cases of heroism throughout not'merely most of the British Empire but where Britons go and then try to say which is the greatest deed of all.
To succeed you need to have spent
but an expert can Ie is therefore fortunate we possess a sessers above criticism. Yet there are every year many who will never know how near they were to securing' the Stanhope Gold Medal—the highest award of the kind. It is a tribute to its value-that it is the only such civil medal which all the Services and officials are, by regulation, allowed to wear.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.